Complete guide to playing Sona in League of Legends Season 6

Ever since I started to play League of Legends I was entranced by one of the most underrated support focused champion. She is mysterious, silent, a savior but also she can be as deadly as the best of them. I’m talking about Sona.
Apparently harmless, Sona is a visually stunning girl floating above the ground, playing a strange string instrument. Sona heals allies, grants movement speed ensuring a quick escape from unpleasant situations, deals insane amounts of damage and has excellent CC. Despite everything Sona tends to be overlooked to the benefit of other support Champions, maybe Tanky , damage focused or with more CC, but a good Sona can be a game changer and an excellent addition to any team. We are moving on with our LoL guides, and of course we will now be talking about Sona.

Sona’s story is as mysterious as it is beautiful and it starts with her being abandoned as a child on the steps of an Ionian orphanage along with her mysterious instrument. With no knowledge of her parents and trying to make the best of the situation, the people that took her in tried selling the instrument a bunch of times and they did so, but through twist of fate the instrument kept on finding it’s way back to Sona. It was only when a noble woman from a far-away land found out about the existence of the instrument and came to visit Sona that they were able to find out more things. Apparently it is called an “etwahl” . In Sona’s hands this magnificent instrument played notes that stirred the hearts and souls of audiences. Sona started playing sold out venues amazing people with her music but in private she started honing a special set of skills: some notes she played were able to slice through objects at a distance, there was value in this and Sona trained until she fully mastered this Art.
Sona is apparently mute and because of that all the responses that the summoner gets out of her happen through the use of telepathy. I am referring here to here stamen according to which only her summoner can hear her words. All the external interactions Sona has (such as Taunts/Joke) are via her musical instrument.“Her melody moves the soul, her silence sunders the body.”— Jericho Swain, after attending her concert

Especially in Season 6 Sona fits any team composition very well as she can bring a lot of things to the table. While heals and CC are really important I love Sona for her Harass and Poke especially in the first stages of any game. Once we go further into the Game she just becomes scary.

Abilities

Already interesting, Sona gets high benefits from her passive especially when she also gets Lich Bane later in the game.

Take some time to read what Hymn of Valor does because everytime I do, I fall in love with her all over again. And you know what my favourite thing about this ability is? IT IS NOT A SKILL SHOT. If you are within range, your Q will hit not one, but TWO targets.

Sona’s W, Aria of Perseverance heals you and your most wounded ally, it grants a shield and reduces incoming damage, what’s not to love?

Sona’s E can be used in two ways: it can help you escape or chase but it also allows you to slow an enemy down so that you can catch up and trade stories and exchange cooking recipes…oh, and you can also kill him.

RUNES

Masteries

In order to play Sona well you need to adapt to what bottom lane you are facing:Tanky support:
Should you find yourself face to face with a tanky support your main job becomes dealing as much damage as possible to the enemy ADC while dodging the enemy support’s grabs/hooks/ slows as tanks don’t normally deal huge amounts of damage. Sona’s Q deals huge amounts of damage to the enemy ADC and because she has a lot of sustain she can even trade hits with him/her. All this while your ADC is farming happily or can join you and maybe land that last hit on the pesky enemy. What you are trying to do in this situation is drive the enemy Support insane with frustration and get him to engage. From here it can go two ways: the enemy ADC will not be able to assist his support because he will be low HP as a result of your poke, in which case you get to kill the support. Or the enemy ADC tries to help his support but he is squishy, he has already been poked by you and then you kill him. Who knows?Maybe you kill them both or they use Flash/heal and have to go B, but you should come out of this trade as being the victor.Sustainers:
If you are “lucky” enough to play versus a sustainer such as Soraka/Nami/Janna you should focus mainly on getting them out of the picture. The point of this is to keep their ADC alone for as long as possible without him being healed/shielded. It is vital to be on voice comm with your ADC so that you can both focus the same target. Either kill the enemy support or keep him low HP and maybe send him B many, many times.Mages:
Whenever facing off against mages such as Annie ( my personal nemesis) or maybe Brand it will be easier for you to play Sona as long as you work on your positioning. Keep behind friendly minions, pop your Q and back up. When it comes to damage you will deal almost as much as them but you have no stuns which could be a problem. I repeat, work on your positioning. In order to properly do your job and take care of business you need to keep your ADC alive. He will be CC’d, he will, don’t say he won’t because he will. When your ADC is stunned and their ADC is closing in for the kill, do not retreat, hit them with your Q and heal your ADC with your W. This will make them back away or switch and target you. Job done, they are neglecting your ADC.

SECOND item: Ionian Boots of Lucidity
THIRD item: Morellonomicon* or Athene’s Unholy Grail**

*Get Morellonomicon when you like maxing out cdr as fast as you can for more plays with your ult, when you like the extra 20 AP for stronger poke and heals, when enemy magic damage dealers aren’t too much of a threat, when there are enemies like Dr. Mundo, Garen, Vladimir, Volibear that are a threat to prevent their high hp regen once they get under 40% health.
**Get Athene’s when you like spamming your abilities more frequently because of the much stronger mp regen, when the enemy team has alot magic damage dealers that are a threat.

Why?
– CHEAPEST and most effective way to max cooldown reduction
– AP, working on your AP from the start gives you epic heals and poke early on
– GREAT gold income
– WARDS four of them, vision of dark places to get knowledge where enemies hide giving you safety or surprising the lonely enemy with your team
– REDUCES cooldown time on your summoner spells, can exhaust and/or flash more often
– GREAT sustain (mp and hp) early game, even better hp sustain later in game

Things not to buy and why
– Different boots: you want the cheap cooldown reduction for your ult and heal, also the 10% reduced time on your summoner spells gives you room to play a bit more aggressive
– Frost Queen’s Claim: your passive can slow plus Rylai’s Crystal Scepter will do the job

Masteries: 5% EXTRA* cooldown reduction
Watchers: 10% cooldown reduction
Boots: 10% cooldown reduction
Morellonomicon or Athene’s: 20% cooldown reduction
Total with masteries: 45%
Useful because: reduces your ult and you can spam Aria of Perseverance much faster during teamfights
*The max cooldown reduction you can get with items in game is 40%, the masteries increases your max cooldown reduction to 45% and gives you the 5% aswell.

Once you get to mid game where you notice to be more targeted upgrade your boots to Ionian Boots of Lucidity – Distortion

After the first three items you mainly focus on AP.
4th 5th and 6th items:

Rabadon’s Deathcap,

Zhonya’s Hourglass,

Rylai’s Crystal Scepter

Why?
– Highest AP per one item slot
– All your abilities are purely based on AP (thus OP heals/shields, OP damage from Q/passive, and epic speed boosts)
– The statis can save you if you get jumped on in teamfights and the 45armor makes you a bit less squishy
– The extra 400hp makes you a bit less squishy and more slows to catch or get away from people

Whenever over 1.25k gold get a Needlessly Large Rod unless finishing a big item such as Rabadon’s Deathcap, Zhonya’s Hourglass, Rylai’s Crystal Scepter.
When building these items get the AP things first.
When the game you’re in doesn’t want to end:
Get Elixir of Iron or Elixir of Sorcery, also if you’ve finished all six items you may consider selling your boots straight into Lich Bane to get the extra spicy burst, you won’t be lacking movement speed because late game your E will be much more effective.

– You got a huge long range line aoe ult which stuns all enemies in it for 1.5secs it’s a great tool to initiate fights or get enemies off yourself/teammates to get to safety

– Your Q has a very long range, targeting 2 nearest enemies, prioritizing champions, use it alot to harass your enemies, if the positioning allows you, try to get both of your Q bolts on champions

– Your Q won’t damage enemies if you have no vision of them (in bushes), but will damage them if you activate Q before enemies go in a bush without vision

– Your W heals more the lower your teammate current health is, gives yourself and teammates a shield for 1.5secs, the shield size is about as much as your heal, try to time the shields before taking damage for maximum effect

– If the enemy team has atleast 3 magic damage champions you may wanna suggest Spirit Visage to your top lane and/or jungler because the person with the item now receives more healing from anyone in the team

– Your great mp regen masteries makes you able to sustain and help your team when needed, even when low on health you simply spam some W

– Use your E for movement speed aoe, you can tag teammates to activate it for them, great tool to catch up on enemies, get quickly away or out rotate your enemies

– After every 3rd skill casted you gain Power Chord selfbuff from your passive, depending on which skill you used last you get a special basic attack effect, you can use another skill to change the effect, Power Chord selfbuff only removes itself upon doing a basic attack

– Try proc-ing your Tribute passive as much as you can from Spellthief’s Edge and it’s upgrades to gain more gold and complete your build faster

– Ask your jungler to duo dragon at lv 3, make sure your adc plays safe when you leave, your jungler and own hp is 90% or higher, have atleast like 30-40% mp and have two points into Q and one into W, use your Warding Totem (Trinket) before starting make sure you come from the top side/blue buff side so it’s not obvious for the enemy team where you went, once started spam your Q onto the dragon and spam your W on your jungler (don’t overheal), throw in some auto attacks while you don’t heal and your Q is on cooldown, make sure to stand safe and don’t get hit by the dragon, if you didn’t get too low go back into lane, if your jungler is rushing devourer as first item you may want to duo dragon at lv5 or 6, it’ll be a bit easier plus more efficient as the dragon gives your jungler 5 stacks if they get the finishing hit.